August 31, 2017

When I was first learning to write in cursive, we used fountain pens. I know, it sounds like something out of the Victorian era, but it’s true. I’ve always maintained a fondness for fountain pens, but they’re quite difficult to find in the States.

Try going into a Staples and looking for one. Oh, you might find a nice Cross Fountain Pen, but I tend to lose things, so that’s not an option. Also, people always ask to borrow pens, and if you’re a real fountain pen person, you know that the nib adjusts to your writing, so you NEVER lend your fountain pen. EVER.

When I was in Montreal, I remembered having bought a set of disposable fountain pens and a great pad of paper there a number of years ago. Although I could neither remember the name of the store, or find it again, it gave me the tiny little push I needed to hunt for fountain pens again.

The first set I bought because I couldn’t resist the name: Platinum Preppy! The set came in seven colours of ink, which was a huge change from my childhood, black, blue-black or blue ink. They’re Japanese, as so many fun things are,and come in a fine point. The colours are great, except yellow, which you can barely see!

Then I bought a set of Thornton's Fountain Pens which had a fine nib. Again with the yellow! If I buy these again, I think I will get a medium nib instead of fine. Because I have so many meetings, and need to keep track of all of the various things I do, I devised a system a number of years ago that works for me. Each conversation is written in a different colour ink. So leafing through my myriad notebooks, I can see where a new conversation beging with just a glance. These pens are perfect for that.

I am thrilled that I’ve once again discovered fountain pens and that they don’t leak and feather on the paper like in the old days.

August 21, 2017

How lucky we were that Sunday was an absolutely PERFECT day! Not a cloud in the sky, warm temperatures, a light breeze and no humidity! So it was an ideal afternoon to head about 20 minutes south of Baltimore to visit the historic Belmont Manor, another house designed, in part, by my new obsession, Pleasants Pennington.

You get to the house via a long and very narrow and bumpy road before you finally see the allée of trees leading to the house which sits atop a hill. It is completely different from the last house I wrote about, and charming in its own way. First, the center portion is a lot older, dating to the early 1700’s, with the hyphens and wings added a bit later. In the 1910’s and 1920’s, Pennington added a lot more space to the house, extending it to the rear and adding to one of the wings. He also designed the charming pool house.

Back to the house. It’s a lot more subtle and much smaller than the last house. It’s also a lot older. This was the original ballroom, and as you can see, the corners of the room are curved, a detail that’s only on the inside of the house, but one which elevates the room.

The manager of Belmont mentioned to me that the newel post on the staircase at Belmont is very similar to the one at the other house. Apparently, Belmont’s staircase was relocated when the house was remodeled, so in all probability, Pennington was the one who designed it.

This is one of the rooms which Pennington designed, and you can see his style here when compared to the last house.

This is the original back door to the house, which they moved during the expansion and centered on the back of the house. The door is in the corner of the room inside, but centered outside. They also moved the back stairs to the gardens.

Belmont has added a huge tent to the gardens because the space is primarily used for weddings and other special events. It’s so popular that it’s booked through 2018!

There is a grove of trees set up for outdoor weddings which seats about 200 guests. The gardens are nice, but not great and they’re sparsely planted. Luckily, there are a lot of the original trees dotting the property.

The other Pennington addition is the pool house, which is fantastic, but actually a pretty simple structure. The elegance is in the perfect proportions and the details. What was originally a swimming pool is now a beautiful lily pond – spectacularly painted black to show off the plantings.

One of the highlights for me was seeing the grave of the steeplechase/hunter/race-horse, Billy Barton, the first animal featured on the cover of Time Magazine. He was the most famous race horse of his time and was purchased at the age of five by David Bruce, former owner of Belmont.

He is buried at Belmont, standing up, in full tack.His stable-mate, Jay-Jay, is buried next to him.Belmont is open to the general public four times a year, the next in December. Check their website to see the exact information. Here’s an article with some information about the acquisition and history of the house.

August 17, 2017

Naturally, after I posted pictures of the inside of the house over which I am obsessing, I got a call asking if I’d like to have a tour. “Tomorrow, at 10:00 a.m.” It was an offer I could not refuse, because if i said no, I might not get another chance to see the house.

My host was charming and informative, and was patient enough to allow me to peek into closets and open doors everywhere. The house is more than 11,000 square feet, and is based on a five-part Georgian design with a main section, two hyphens and two “smaller” sections, either of which would make a nice size house. But this house has an extra two-story wing added, which housed the kitchens and some other rooms on the first floor and servants’ rooms on the second.

There are still most, if not all of the original details, like moulding, hard-wood and marble floors, doors, etc. remaining in the house, as only one family lived it it. But it was most recently (and not even too recently) used as a show-house, and vestiges of that remain as well. Come along and I will show you the current interiors. If you missed the original ones, click here.

One of the most wonderful things about this house is that there is a fireplace in almost every room. Most of them are early 20th century designs as that’s the era of the house, but many have had the surrounds painted in some form.

There are great details throughout the house, including these windows on a swinging door,

this beautiful brass doorknob and escutcheon,

the bell and buzzer system – the chapel wasn’t original to the house,

and this huge built-in safe.

Anyone who has read this blog knows I am a huge fan of enfiladed doorways, regardless of the badly placed exit signs…

and infilled doorways.

As I mentioned, there are remnants of the showhouse including this room. The gold paint is probably radiator paint, and the walls above the chair-rail are actually wood-patterned contact paper!

More radiator paint (or maybe it’s tea paper), this time in silver, but the original details are still there. Check out the jib door on the left below.

The rooms are so classic in their design, apparently a hallmark of the architect, Pleasants Pennington.

You can get an idea of the scale of the house from these two images.

The center hallway is still beautiful.

There was a ton of storage in this house, including in one of the hyphens,

and this closet with drawers and cabinets, as well as a chain to open the skylight.

We had a long discussion about the fact that the house was cream or pale yellow for the first several decades if its existence. Looking at the brick, it seems like the house might have had a light covering of stucco that covered the brickwork. Interestingly, in the architect’s rendering of my friend’s house, it was also a pale yellow over the brick, but the images of the house from the time it was built show it as brick. My suspicion is that the stucco started loosening sometime after the house transferred in the late 40’s, and so it was removed entirely. But traces remain. And the green in the image below comes from the copper screens.

Thanks for coming along with me on my explorations of this amazing house. I am heading to see another of Pleasant Pennington’s local projects over the weekend. It’s only open to the public twice a year, so it’s a “don’t miss” occasion for me!

About Me

Pigtown Design is the musings of Meg Fairfax Fielding, a Baltimore-based writer, photographer and fund-raiser, who explores design, architecture, culture, and current events in Baltimore and around the world.